Name: Samkara Restaurant and Garden Resort
Address: Sitio Malinao, Barangay Igang, Lucban, Quezon, San Pablo, San Pablo, San Pablo, 4328, Philippines
Rating: 8

24-hour reception

Smoking areas

Smoke-free property

Heating

Security guard

Gift shop

Garden

Terrace

Patio

General

Room service

Family room

Cable TV

Minibar

Shower/Bathtub

Shower

Toiletries

Rooms

Wheelchair Accessible

Accessibility

Ironing

Laundry

Safe-deposit box

Luggage storage

Services and amenities

Restaurant

Bottled water

Meals

English

Languages Spoken

Free parking

Parking nearby

Free Parking on Premises

Parking

Swimming pool

Outdoor pool

Pool and beach

Meeting and presentation facilities

Business

Massage

Beauty and wellness

Family/Kid Friendly

Kids

Pets Not Allowed

Pets

Location

At the resort

Room amenities

Samkara Restaurant and Garden Resort

San Pablo

Place is nice and clean but very poor customer service. No one helped in baggage to room and upon check out. Additional extra bed is just a mattress on the floor.  Employees left while we were still in the restaurant. Plates were only cleared the following morning. Breakfast was too expensive compared to other hotel we stayed in the city

Poor Customer service

First and foremost, Glen should be the ✨ Employee of the Year✨

🥇 According to him, they are short-staffed, so he's the only one taking and serving the orders (we were in one of the cottages). Although, I did see that there were wait staff in the restaurant, but yes, he was the only one running around to take care of the orders from the cottages.

🥇 Even though his plate was full (figuratively and literally) with all the customers he's handling, he was attentive to our requests and was approachable and patient when we asked him to take our photos several times. He asked if we want him to put the cake we brought to their refrigerator in the meantime, and he gave us extra plastic containers for our take outs - these, among a few other kind gestures, just show how much thought he puts into his work. Clearly, he takes pride in his job. 

🥇There was a misunderstanding with the Day Tour fee. We were told on the official FB Messenger that we don't need to pay that if we're to dine in and not use their pools. They also confirmed that we can take photos around and stay for as long as we like since we rented a cottage. But upon occupying the cottage, Glen asked us for the Day Tour Fee, and upon discussion and review of the Messenger conversation, he said it's all good, and we don't need to pay since it was what we're informed with during the booking process. No one admitted to the mistake, but Glen assured us that there's nothing to worry about. The cottages was supposedly for Day Tour guests only. 

For the price they ask their customers to pay, they should improve on a couple of things:

1. Alignment and coordination of staff - if the staff I was talking to when booking for this occasion was well-informed about the Day Tour fee, then there wouldn't be any misunderstanding, as I can and am willing to pay, if that's something I needed to settle to get in, of course. At least, they took accountability of their mistake (although, no one admitted to the mistake as per Glen).

2. We went to the bar to order iced coffee for the five of us. The male barista was taking and making other orders when we approached him. He then listed our orders and asked us to give the piece of paper to Glen because according to him, all our orders should be through him. However, Glen was no where to be found. We looked around for a bit before we decided to ask the female staff behind the counter. We told that the barista asked us to give our orders to Glen, but we can't find him, so we asked her what should we do next. That's when the barista said that he will give our orders to Glen, and the other staff seconded. However, in the first place, why would you ask a paying customer to go look for the wait staff to order food that you're selling as a business? Why would you ask a customer to take an extra step on purchasing your goods and services? You should make it super easy for your customers to spend money on your business, not the other way around. We were told by the female staff that Glen was on a lunch break. If you have just one wait staff, you should be coordinated enough that you know when he's on a lunch break and not ask your customer to go to him, when you should know that he will probably in the back room resting and eating.

3. Glen asked if we'd like our halo halo to be served later, and that's nice and is usual for a premium restaurant, but he already served the brownie ala mode with ice cream on top, and it was scorching hot, so naturally, it was already melted when it reached our table. If you're serving dessert, you should also ask if the customer wants it served later especially if it has ice cream on it! We hurriedly set our table to eat because of the melting ice cream.

4. The place was beautiful overall, but was not well-maintained. You can tell it's old because there are cobwebs on a lot of areas.

5. Please add a staff or two. You market your garden resort and restaurant as premium, so you should be able to afford hiring at least one more. 

Needs improvement 

We dine at their restaurant to celebrate my father-in-law's birthday. To be fair, staff are friendly and accomodating but needs more training as one of them don't know what are the toppings of Samkara Pizza. Pizza Margherita was a joke. I particulary love the harvest salad (tho most of it were just lettuce, no flower as shown in the menu) and the pancit lucban. It takes a lot of time to bill out, we actually went to the cashier because we are waiting too long for the bill. Overall, location is superb with ducks and fishes. Instagramable area. I just hope in the future they add small cakes for birthday celebrations.

Birthday Celebration

My family and friends stayed here to see the pahiyas festival. The resort was amazing, room very clean, it has two pools. The only downside about this resort is the customer service. The staff are not trained well enough for good customer service, interaction is very poor. Some are not friendly. Also the lack of food and beer. My English husband and his friend ordered American breakfast and we will expect it comes with bread but they served the corned beef with fried rice. One night they ordered beer but the staff said there’s nothing left. They were aware beforehand that they will be having a few guests surely they should’ve had stocked some extra food and drinks. The room didn’t have hair dryer which you think having a pool at the resort they would have provided this. Overall I would not recommend this to my family and friends.

Lucban Pahiyas

The place is very relaxing. Pool is quite small, although we did not experience it to be crowded, probably because the water is too cold, guests would not stay for long in the pool. It is ideal for small groups. They have good food. Staff are nice and the resort is clean. We enjoyed our stay. 

Relaxing

A restaurant and resort that offers good food and a relaxing ambiance.  It just feels good to eat seeing nature around.  Their best seller, “Kalderetang Kalabaw” is really delectable and reasonably priced.  This place is a must try when in Lucban. 

A must try in Lucban!

Good Points
1.	Room (Kaliwili 4). 
We booked only thru their FB Page which was easy enough for us, and as said in their page, they only accept cash transactions. Our room was ready when we got there, AC and TV was already on.  I like it because in most of hotels we booked in Quezon, we have to wait for few minutes for the housekeeping to prep the room. My advice is to chat or text them on your ETA, so that they can prep the room ahead of time.  The room was simple but really, really nice and it also gave us a nice view of the rice field at the back of the resort, and it has a small balcony. CR is quite large and clean and complete with basic toiletries. No bathtub though. 

2.	Food. 
On dinner, we had buffalo wings and shanghai rice which was tasty and have a nice plating. On our breakfast we had cornsilog and bangsilog. I found it funny when they have American and Filipino Style, but it’s just actually a silog meal with fruits as dessert. But it also tasted good.  Cooked food from outside is unfortunately isn’t allowed, but they didn’t inspect our bags to when we checked-in, if I know that, I wish I smuggle some burger. Ha-ha. Just saying. 

3.	Surroundings.
 The resort overall gives you a relaxing atmosphere. I even picked some ideas when I going to build my own house. For those who’re looking for pre-nup or pre-debut pictorial set, this can be a good option, though some might find this spot limited. Unfortunately, they were just setting up some Christmas decor (even Halloween is still on its way) when we checked out and the hanging umbrellas was not there. Possibly because of recent typhoons. Those may be up there again in summer.

4.	Staff
Aside from the room and food, one I always observe in a hotel or resort is their staff. Good thing that Samkara has good staff, and I really hope that they are well paid for their services.
Observations for improvement
1.	Room. 
The cable reception was interrupted or at least until late night when the signal became decent. There are 2 complimentary bottled water and tea, but they didn’t include creamer, sugar, optional like coffee and even a water heater. You’ll have to ask for it to the front desk. No room telephone, so if you have a lot of demands or requests, expect yourself to be walking back and forth. And ohh, they don’t have wifi, and data signal there sucks.

2.	Food.
 Too bad, food here is quite expensive. To give you an idea, 1 cup of rice was Php. 30.00 and shanghai rice, which is basically 2 cup of fried rice garnished with cucumber was Php. 120.00. Lucky for us, we weren’t that hungry that night, so we ordered just a little and it tasted good. Most of the food servings are good for 2-3 persons, except in breakfast meals. So if you’re a weak eater, find yourself some company to avoid excess food. Besides, food tastes better if you have someone to share it with. But if you’re some rich person, of course you wouldn’t mind this as long as it tastes good. 

3.	Pool. 
They only have one average sized pool with section for kids and adult. That’s it. One might not enjoy this during peak season caused everyone will be sharing this pool. 

4.	Quite expensive
As I said earlier food is quite expensive, and that goes for room rates too. I have been in many hotels and resorts within and outside of my home province (Quezon), and I can say SAMKARA is one of the resorts with overpriced room rates. I can understand their price for food, I mean almost every hotel does that. But Kaliwili 4 is a really nice room, but for Php 4,000.00 with no special inclusions or room features, it’s not “sulit”. For me, it should only cost around Php. 2,300.00-Php. 2,500.00. Php. 2,800.00 might be acceptable if they include things we didn’t get. I have been in hotels with hot spring swimming pool, bathtub, separate shower room, buffet breakfast with choices of American, Filipino (the true ones) and Chinese style, complimentary coffee, tea, , creamer, sugar and bottled water, slippers, and a WiFi which cost around Php, 2,800.00 to Php. 3,500.00 only. Well, this can be attributed to absence of competition in the area. That is probably why they milking that opportunity. 

They also have a pasalubong store with some interesting delicacies there, but I didn’t bother asking for the price, given with their charges for food and room, I can already imagine. 

To summarize everything - nice room, good food, great surroundings at a pricey rates. 
7/10.

Nice room, good food, great surroundings at a pricey rates.

Stayed here for two nights.  During our first day, we were delighted that one of the 2 rooms we booked was ready for early check in.. The staff were all friendly and willing to assist, we got the resort to ourselves for 2 nights.. Food was good and serving is already good for two to three persons.. We stayed in Kalawili Room 4 and it was clean with basic toiletries included..Samkara is around 15 to 20 minutes away from Kamay ni Hesus..
Pets are allowed at no extra charge..

So here are some areas for improvement:
- Teapot still contained left over tea by the previous guest.
- Clay Jar beside the TV still have some trash inside it.
- I booked through Agoda and provided my credit card, learned that I will pay at the property (No notice that it will be CASH PAYMENT). I thought my card details will be used for pre-authorization. Kaila called me to confirm my booking days before without telling me that they only accept CASH.
About to settle the consumed meals, thats when Kaila told me about the CASH ONLY payment including the accommodations, good thing we brought in more than enough cash to suffice for the whole trip.

So let this review be a warning: CASH PAYMENT ONLY


Samkara Restaurant and Garden Resort

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